Contradictions abound in U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith's party switch

Eric Schultz / The Huntsville TimesU.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, R-HuntsvilleHUNTSVILLE, AL -- On the day after his switch to the Republican party, 5th District Congressman Parker Griffith expressed confidence he would be a presence on Congressional committees vital to North Alabama, and that his political views have not changed.

But Griffith could not point to any agreement he has with Republicans for committee assignments. And in a wild Wednesday of political jockeying, questions were still being raised about Griffith's reasons for switching parties, a key member of his staff resigned, the Democratic Party alleged wrongdoing by Griffith's campaign consultants and several names in North Alabama Democratic politics were thrown around as a potential opponents in 2010.

After saying he wouldn't necessarily lose his committee assignments because Democrats wouldn't want to appear "small and punitive," he officially resigned and was removed from the Small Business, Transportation and Infracture, and Science and Technology committees, read by the clerk on the floor of Congress.

Griffith said his new friends in the Republican Party will make sure that after the first of the year he'll get some good assignments, perhaps science and transportation, the very committees he was removed from.

He said he's been guaranteed he'll get assignments that are "commensurate with, if not better than" what he's already had.

Meanwhile, the question of whether polling data swayed Griffith's decision was also muddled. Griffith said Wednesday that his office hadn't sponsored a poll to gauge his electability as a Democrat, nor did he commission anyone else.

"I didn't see any numbers," Griffith said.

That contradicts a report in Congressional Quarterly that said Griffith's office confirmed Wednesday that he did comission a poll, though "he declined to release the specific polling questions or the restults of the survey."

Griffith said he might do some polling after Christmas, "after the dust settles."

He also has not spoken to Bud Cramer, the longtime Democrat congressman who endorsed Griffith after he announced his retirement in the spring of 2008.

He said he chose not to consult him because he didn't want Cramer - now a lobbyist in Washington - to get "caught up in this" or "harmed in any way."

Some political insiders are saying Griffith has been courted by Republicans since the summer, when the congressman publicly and vehemently opposed government-run health care. But Griffith said he only began strongly considering the switch two weeks ago, when "far left-leaning" Democrats determined that the best use for payback of funds to the Toxic Assets Relief Program was to fund another stimulus package rather than pay down the deficit.

To those who say Griffith was well acquainted with the Democratic Party and its agenda before he ran for Congress and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from liberals, the representative said the agenda changed. He said his former party has been "hijacked."

"I haven't changed," he said. "I'm still the pro-life, pro-gun, pro-business, pro-small government, independent businessman. What has changed? I didn't go further to the right."

Instead, he said the Democratic Party has gone far, far to the left and that many people have told him they appreciate "Dr. Griffith's independent thought, and as the situation changed around him, he had the conviction to make a change.

"I've seen up close and very, very personal a far left wing agenda that gives lip service to other opinions but moves forward with a very methodical and well-organized agenda," he said. "And it is an agenda that is moving us further and further into debt and away from the entrepreneurial business spirit of America...

"It may be a surprise that I made my decision and it sounds as though it came quickly, but in fact it was very, very well thought out. I feel very, very good about it in the sense that I feel that my belief system is being upheld."

He said his own agenda to support missile defense, manned space flight, deficit reduction and job creation was ignored by the leaders in his party.

Griffith has said he'll return any campaign contributions paid by people who want them back, but he said the $1 million-plus the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee isn't included in the offer. He said the DCCC may have made lots of "independent expenditures" on his behalf, "but I had no control over that."

The National Republican Congressional Committee spent at least that much on negative ads against Griffith, depicting him, among other things, as a bad doctor whose patients died from poor treatment. The NRCC issued a press release Tuesday welcoming him into the fold.

Griffith's office said as of Wednesday afternoon, they'd had just two requests for reimbursement.

Not all Republicans are embracing him.

Hugh McInnish, a member of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee, is asking the state committee to consider barring Griffith from qualifying to run as a Republican in the June primary.

Christie Carden, organizer of the Republican-leaning Huntsville Tea Party, said unfortunately for Griffith, "we have high standards for our next congressman... There are two excellent candidates that are already running in this race: Les Phillip and Mo Brooks."

Griffith said he's gotten "hundreds of calls" at home and the office since the announcement, and maybe one out of ten has been negative. "Gosh, yes," the response has been positive, he said.

"They won't vote for me because of what label I am," he said, "but because of who I am and what I can do and what I've done in the past."